


The Viking & The Drowned Boy

by iamlongstockings



Series: Gifts [2]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Accidental Skating, Awkward Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Blizzards & Snowstorms, Cuddling & Snuggling, Cuddling to Prevent Hypothermia, Dragons, Drowning, Fluff, Frostcup - Freeform, In Which Astrid Acts as a Wingman, In Which Everyone Thinks Hiccup Should Just Fess Up, In Which Gobber Acts as a Wingman, M/M, Pining, Rescue, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22039876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamlongstockings/pseuds/iamlongstockings
Summary: During a blizzard, Hiccup spots something or someone trapped under the ice, and risks freezing to death to rescue him.Secret Santa Present for SilverButterfly111.
Relationships: Gobber the Belch & Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Astrid Hofferson, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood)
Series: Gifts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151012
Comments: 5
Kudos: 200





	The Viking & The Drowned Boy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SilverButterfly111](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverButterfly111/gifts).



> Happy Holidays SilverButterfly111!

Snow bit into his face, and the wind seemed to go right through his furs and seeped right into his bones. His hands had been gripping Toothless’ saddle for so long that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to let go when they found somewhere safe to land. Ice coated the sides of Toothless’ scales. They both knew that if they didn’t find somewhere safe to shelter soon, they’d freeze to death.

His teeth beginning to chatter, he could barely move his mouth as he directed the dragon lower, desperately looking for a cave. His eyelids were getting heavy, which he knew wasn’t a good sign. Sleepiness was never a good sign. Sleepiness meant his body temperature had dipped too low, into the danger zone.

They needed shelter, and they needed it now.

A dark spot in the snow caught his attention, and he directed Toothless towards it, praying to Thor that it was a cave they could shelter in until the storm let up.

As Toothless glided over a frozen lake towards his hope of shelter, Hiccup caught a glimpse of white below him.

Something white shouldn’t have been enough to catch his attention – nearly everything was white. It was the middle of winter and it had been snowing heavily for hours, with the temperature steadily dropping the closer they got to nightfall.

But there was _something_ pulling his attention to the lake below, and as they approached he saw a shock of white under a sheet of dark ice. Blinking the snow from his eyes and praying that his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, they circled back, whispering reassurances to Toothless as they went.

His stomach dropped as they soared over the ice once more, the gust from Toothless’ wings having cleared the glassy black surface.

And there, just under the ice, Hiccup could see a boy.

There was a boy under the ice.

“Bud, plasma blast!” Hiccup called, ignoring the icy ache in his arms as he let go of the saddle and pointed to the surface of the lake.

He heard the telltale high pitched whistle that signalled Toothless’s plasma blasts seconds before it hit the surface of the lake next to the boy, shattering the ice instantly.

And despite the fact that Hiccup himself was in the midst of freezing to death, he landed Toothless near the edge of the hole, and dismounted. And without a second thought, he dove into the frigid depths.

For a moment, his senses were so overcome with cold that he couldn’t move a muscle.

Desperately, he ignored the part of his brain that was telling him to sleep, and fought against the water, his limbs moving as slow as if he was swimming through molasses. Blinking, he finally saw the boy with the white hair, and swam desperately in his direction.

Reaching the boy was the easy part. It was navigating back to the hole in the ice that was the hard part.

His lungs were starting to feel like they might burst, and his limbs were already resisting moving. The surface of the ice seemed further and further away as he tried to find the hole where he’d first jumped in. Kicking his legs with all the energy he had left, he pushed against the surface of the ice, hitting it with all his might.

But the ice was much thicker than he’d realized. And he had little strength left. There was no way he’d be able to get out.

And with a sinking feeling, he realized he was trapped under the ice.

His lungs threatening to burst, he pounded against the ice a final time, before he couldn’t hold his breath any longer.

But just as the frigid water began to pour into his nose and mouth, there was a flash of light in front of his closing eyes, and suddenly a pair of large, familiar green eyes in front of his face.

And a jerk of sudden movement, he found himself propelled out of the water somehow, vaguely feeling a tugging at the front of his shirt as he tried to stay awake. Cold air hit his face and startled him. He wasn’t sure what was colder – being in the frigid water, or being exposed to the merciless wind while soaking wet.

Coughing as his lungs tried desperately to expel the water he’d inhaled, he became vaguely aware of the boy with the white hair that he’d somehow managed to pull out of the water with him.

Or had Toothless pulled the other boy out of the water, while he’d been on his hands and knees, trembling and trying to breathe?

His fingers numb from cold, he staggered towards Toothless and, with all of his remaining strength, pulled the drowned boy up onto the dragon with him. His fingers immobile and the water on them already starting to freeze, he wedged them between Toothless and his saddle, the only place that he could think of that would allow him to keep some grip as the dragon once again took flight, flapping desperately across the glassy black lake as they made their way to the cave.

He wasn’t sure if it was from relief or if his nervous system was beginning to shut down from the cold, but when they landed inside the cave, Hiccup felt warmth wash over him.

Struggling off of Toothless, Hiccup and the drowned boy ended up sprawled on the floor of the cave, expelling more lakewater from their lungs as both of their bodieshit the stone. Rolling the boy over, Hiccup pulled at the boy’s clothes, hoping beyond hope that the other boy was still alive. Using all of his weight, he pushed against the boy’s chest, starting regular chest compressions.

Behind him, Toothless was using his plasma breath to heat up stones to lay down on.

Nodding, Hiccup turned and tossed the white haired boy’s shirt onto a spot that Toothless had just heated with a plasma blast, earning a bewildered look from the Night Fury.

“K-k-k-keep doing th-th-that, B-Bud.” Hiccup said, finally noticing just how badly he himself was shivering, and realizing that he needed to change out of his wet clothes perhaps even more than this boy did. Hiccup was still alive – for the time being – and he didn’t even know how long the other boy had been underwater.

Struggling to his feet, he began to pull off his own garments, knowing that staying in wet garments in the cold would only accelerate freezing to death. Pulling at the saddlebag on Toothless’ saddle with clumsy fingers, he found his spare clothes, and somehow managed to change, despite the fact that his digits had limited mobility and even less feeling.

Feeling either less cold or more numb, he turned his attention back to the boy once more and pressed his head against the boy’s chest.

He wasn’t sure what was colder, his face or the boy’s skin. Listening, he closed his eyes, wondering if he’d given himself hypothermia to rescue a dead boy from a frozen lake. He couldn’t possibly be alive – it was too cold, he’d almost certainly been under the ice for too long.

Hiccup blinked.

Pressing his head harder against the boy’s chest, he listened until he heard it again.

The faintest, softest heartbeat.

How the boy was still alive, Hiccup didn’t know, but he knew that neither of them would stay alive for much longer if they didn’t both warm up soon. Pulling him closer to Toothless, he stepped on the warm stone with his one remaining foot and grimaced as the warmth seeped into his foot and painfully began to return feeling to his freezing body. Shuffling closer to Toothless, the viking pulled the drowned boy close and pressed himself up against the side of his dragon, bracing himself for a long, painful night as the warmth of the dragonfire-heated stones began to seep into his body and his nerves regained feeling.

* * *

It was already approaching the early hours of the morning by the time Hiccup had finally succumbed to his weariness and slept, pulling the drowned boy closer and hoping that between two lost boys and a dragon, there would be enough body heat and warmth for them to survive the rest of the night.

Outside of the cave, the storm continued to howl and batter the sides of the cave, blocking the sun behind an impenetrable wall of steely grey well into the morning. The occasional icy draft blew into their cave, making him shiver and pull the stranger closer, desperate for more warmth – or at least, less cold. Even pressed up against Toothless, he still felt as though the cold had seeped straight into his bones.

It wasn’t until the stranger began to stir and pulled free from his arms that Hiccup awoke. Blinking sleep from his green eyes, he saw the drowned boy staring wide eyed at the dragon and his rider, holding his hands in front of himself as he backed away towards the entrance of the cave. As he backed away, he glanced down and spotted a long stick, and effortlessly used his foot to flip it up into his hands.

Now that he was awake, Hiccup realized that the boy was a lot older than he’d initially realized – he had to be around the same age as Hiccup himself. He’d seemed so childlike and small when he’d first pulled him the ice – Hiccup blinked, his green eyes coming to rest on the strangers pale face, meeting his frosty blue eyes.

“It’s okay! You’re safe!” Hiccup said as he scrambled to his feet – or rather, his foot – gently laying a hand on Toothless, and held the other one up to the boy, as though to show that he wasn’t holding a weapon. “My name is Hiccup, and this is Toothless.”

“Hiccup?” the stranger repeated.

Hiccup nodded. “What’s your name?”

The stranger blinked, frowning, and Hiccup wondered if perhaps the boy didn’t speak his language. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if the stranger couldn’t understand a thing he was saying – perhaps there was a village nearby? But would he be able to convince the boy that he meant him no harm so that he could take him there?

Staring blankly, the stranger brought a hand up to his forehead, touching it gently as though he expected the area to be tender and painful, and Hiccup wondered if the boy had hit his head when he’d fallen into the ice.

“My name,” the stranger said slowly, sounding out the words as though they felt foreign on his tongue. “I think my name is Jack Frost.”

Hiccup blinked in surprise. He _thought_ his name was Jack Frost? That definitely wasn’t a good sign.

“How did I get here?” Jack said, glancing with wide eyes around around their cave as though suddenly realizing that they were somewhere he didn’t recognize. “Why did you bring me here?”

“We needed shelter after I pulled you out of the lake, I was afraid we would both freeze to death if we stayed out in the blizzard much longer-”

“You pulled me out of the lake?”

“I wasn’t sure if you were even still alive, but when I saw you under the ice, I knew I had to do something-”

Jack blinked and frowned again, as though he was having difficulty processing all this new information. “I don’t remember-”

Before Jack could finish his thought, there was a low rumble from the mouth of the cave that prompted Toothless to bare his teeth and growl. And then, they were plunged into total darkness as a large wall of ice materialized outside of the cave entrance with a thunderous roar. There was a familiar high frequency whine, then the area was illuminated by Toothless’ plasma flame.

“That’s not good.” Hiccup said as he and Jack surveyed the massive ice wall, which was so thick it was blocking any light from reaching the interior of the cave. Stepping back and gesturing for Jack to do the same, Hiccup nodded at Toothless. “Give it a go, Bud.”

And with that, Toothless fired a plasma blast at the ice wall, which gave a deafening _CRACK!_ A spiderweb pattern began to spread across the ice wall starting from the hollow where Toothless’ plasma blast had made impact. Hiccup’s eyes widened at the high pitched creaking sound, and he grabbed Jack’s arm, desperately pulling the boy further from the cave entrance.

“We’ve gotta go – _now_.”

Half dragging Jack at first, he soon seemed to realize what was about to happen, and the two boys and the dragon hurried deeper into the cave, which was lit only by the light from Toothless’ mouth. There was a sudden, large _CRUNCH_ that echoed through the hall, followed by a dangerous tinkling sound that told Hiccup that they’d run out of time.

Spotting a large crevice towards the back of the cave, Hiccup pulled Jack towards it, Toothless following close on their heels.

And with an ominous sound like a ginormous wind chime, the first layer of the ice wall fell inwards, sending a sheet of thousands of tiny ice shards crashing into the floor of the cave where they’d been only seconds before.

It was a few moments before any of them dared to draw breath, as though even the fainted sound would trigger another avalanche of dangerously sharp ice shards. Blinking, Hiccup found himself face to face with the drowned boy, pressed up against one another by the close confines of the narrow passage. Their faces flushing bright red, Hiccup shifted further into the split in the rocks, trying to put some space between himself and Jack.

Finally glancing around at the end of the crevice, Hiccup realized that the split in the rock opened up into a much larger passageway on the other side. Curiosity reeling him in, he pushed onwards and stepped into the large cavern.

“Well, I guess that’s two I owe you now.” Jack said with a half smile as he followed, his blue eyes stretching wide at the sight of the interior cavern. “Whoa.”

As Toothless squeezed through the tunnel in the rock towards them, the plasma flame in his mouth began to brighten the area even more, and soon the entire cave was visible. His violet flame flickering against the grey-brown stones, they found that there were only two ways out of the massive cavern – the large split in the stone through which they’d come in, and a narrow tunnel on what Hiccup estimated to be the northernmost side of the cave.

Glancing into the tunnel as far as Toothless’ plasma breath could illuminate, Hiccup frowned at how smooth the tunnel seemed to be. He didn’t like the idea of ending up trapped further underground in a narrow passageway – not that they had much of an alternative. He didn’t feel like taking their chances with that ice wall again – a wall of ice coming down on their heads was quite possibly the last thing they needed.

With a sigh, Hiccup gestured towards the narrow passageway in the rock. “Looks like it’s all downhill from here.”

Hiccup lead the way into the passageway, followed by Jack and Toothless bringing up the rear as they followed the winding passageway, descending steadily deeper into the earth with each step. Ahead of them, the shadows of the two boys stretched long across the smooth stone, flickering almost violet against the dulls greys and browns with the light from Toothless’s plasma breath.

Halting, Hiccup raised a hand to signal to his companions, who fell silent in the tunnel. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Jack asked, falling silent as he looked around the cave, his ears straining for the sound.

Frowning, Hiccup took a step forward, eyes narrowed as he listened for the sound.

And then, Hiccups’ prosthetic leg suddenly disappeared from under him, and he nearly slipped, if it weren’t for the rock wall that he threw himself against to stop from falling.

“We’ll have to stay near the wall.” Jack said, glancing down at the glittering ice that was covering the tunnel for as far as their eyes could see.

Hiccup nodded and set a hand on the tunnel wall to steady himself as he carefully continued on his way down the tunnel, gritting his teeth at the effort it took to keep from sliding down the rest of the tunnel.

And then his foot was sliding on the ice surface, and so was his prosthetic. He grabbed at the wall to slow himself, but the rough surface just grazed under his skin as he gained momentum. Behind him, Toothless warbled worriedly. Jack cast a glance over his shoulder at the Night Fury, then shrugged and took a big step forward, pushing off down the icy track as the brunette boy ahead of him plunged into total darkness, quickly picking up speed as they continued to descend into the cave system.

Hiccup’s legs trembled under him as he struggled to remain upright, speeding down the icy tunnel, with who knows waiting for them at the other end of it. He frowned as the cold wind whipped past his face in the pitch black. His heart pounded in his chest as he tried not to think of what might be at the end of the tunnel, like a sudden jagged rock, or a massive pit, or a nest full of speed stingers.

This probably wasn’t going to end well.

Jack squatted lower to the ground, using his legs to push himself faster and faster down the tunnel, trying to put some distance between himself and the Night Fury, keeping his hands out in front of him to feel for any danger that might be ahead of him in the darkness. Smiling at the familiar ache in his thigh muscles at his crouched skating position, he felt a warmth spreading across his chest.

“Woohoo!” Jack cried out, his heart pounding. “Wooooohoooo!”

Something felt so familiar about the way he was moving across the ice in the darkness.

“Jack?” A voice a short distance ahead of him called from the darkness, and his blue eyes suddenly stretched very wide.

“Brace yourself!” He called out.

“What?!” The voice called back, alarmed, seconds before Jack felt something soft and warm at his finger tips. Bracing himself for impact, he grabbed hold of the brunette boy, who gave a startled yelp as Jack somehow managed to catch him by the hand in the darkness as he slid past, nearly pulling his arm out of the socket as he pulled Hiccup alongside him.

As they sped even faster down the tunnel, Hiccup struggled to stay on his feet, still surprised that he’d managed to stay on his feet for as long as he had. Bracing himself as he felt Jack’s weight shift, his free arm flailed – and then he was holding something soft and steady – _Jack_.

Feeling Hiccup’s unsteadiness, Jack braced himself and grinned as they began to rotate on the ice, whirling around in slow circles as they slid down the tunnel.

And then the ice ended abruptly, sending them stumbling over the rock, and then, with a breathless grunt, sprawling in a heap on the earth.

“Make that one less that I owe you.” Jack said with a small smirk, trying to untangle himself from under Hiccup.

“You call that a rescue?” Hiccup scoffed. “You and I have very different ideas of what constitutes a rescue.”

It suddenly occurred to both Hiccup and Jack that their faces were only inches from one another, and both of their freckled faces flushed red once more in the purple light, before they scrambled awkwardly to their feet.

A sudden jingly growl sounded, and drew the trio’s attention to a large silver-blue dragon with a long snout and large, sharp spines down the length of its’ back.

Hiccup’s green eyes ran over the dragon from nose to tail, awed. “That’s a Shivertooth.”

The Shivertooth’s mouth beginning to glow blue, both boys’ eyes stretched wide with concern. As Toothless stumbled into the open section of the cavern, it occurred to Hiccup that he could _see_ everything that was happening. Glancing around, he spotted the mouth of the cave and what appeared to be a blue sky outside of it.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough fun with ice for today.” Hiccup said, mounting Toothless hastily and holding out a hand to Jack.

Jack looked as though he was going to debate this point, but after taking a second look at the Shivertooth, gave a half-hearted shrug. “Fair point.”

And with that, he took Hiccup’s hand, climbing up onto the Night Fury’s back and holding tight to the dragon rider as the Night Fury took flight, beating his great black wings and snarling a warning to the Shivertooth, whose ice breath was close on their tail as they fled the cave, narrowly escaping the dragon’s ice trap.

* * *

The sun was already high in the sky when Hiccup awoke. Wincing at the shaft of sunlight that had fallen across his face, he moved an arm in front of his face to block out the light, resisting a groan at the sight of smeared charcoal on his forearm – and the smudged map that had been laid out on his desk. He’d been up most of the night, and evidently still hadn’t made it to bed.

A snort drew his attention to his bed, where a body lay half-wrapped in his bedsheets.

Standing, and quietly stretching his sore, stiff back, he made his way towards the boy in his bed, a small smile on his lips as he pulled the sheets up around the boy. Jack Frost, the drowned boy, who didn’t remember a thing about who he had been or where he’d come from before Hiccup had pulled him out of the ice. Jack Frost, the reason Hiccup spent his nights poring over maps by candlelight and his days flying to every island in the archipelago, trying to find somewhere, something or someone that might trigger Jack’s memory.

But thus far, their search had turned up nothing.

Rubbing sleep from his eyes, Hiccup turned and made his way downstairs, and headed outside with Toothless. Perched on the roof of the house he shared with his father, and, as of late, Jack, waited Coldsnap, the mischievous Shivertooth that Jack had insisted on going back to tame, waiting patiently for his rider.

Hiccup made a mental note to stop by Gobber’s to see if he’d finished the specialized armoured saddle that Jack needed in order to ride Coldsnap, whose razor sharp scales made it challenging and dangerous to fly without some sort of barrier between the dragon and its’ rider.

He had almost reached the mess hall when a voice called out his name, and he turned to find Astrid hurrying up to meet him. There was a glint of amusement in her eyes as she looked over the rumpled clothes he was wearing – the same ones he’d been wearing the night before, and she raised an eyebrow at him.

“Fun night?”

“Jack and I were up most of the night, going over the archipelago maps again, trying to see if there were any that we might have missed.”

“Find anything?”

“Not yet, but I was thinking that we might be able to range further out once Coldsnap’s saddle is ready to go, then we’ll be able to fly longer distances. There’s still a chance Jack’s people are out there-”

“I don’t think I’ve _ever_ seen you this eager to send someone back where they came from. And here I thought you and Jack were getting on pretty well.”

“What? No, I’m not – just – I wouldn’t - we _are_ getting along. Really well, actually.” Hiccup said, running a hand through his hair. “I like having Jack around.”

Astrid smirked. “And have you told him that yet?”

“Very funny.” Hiccup said, rolling his eyes. “You’re hilarious.”

“And you’re blushing.” Astrid stated as they pushed through the heavy wooden doors into the mess hall in search of breakfast, Hiccup pointedly refusing to look at the blonde warrior and trying to ignore the warm flush in his cheeks. With a shrug, Astrid grabbed her own breakfast and made her way towards the door. “I think you should tell him.”

“Because _that’d_ go over well.” Hiccup muttered, rolling his eyes once more as he grabbed his own breakfast.

It had been nearly three months since Hiccup had pulled the drowned boy out of the frozen lake and they’d spent the night cuddled up together for warmth – something that still brought a flush of colour to Hiccup’s cheeks whenever he thought about it. Hiccup was certain that they only reason they hadn’t both died of hypothermia in that cave was because of Toothless, and the heated rock trick that he’d relied on to dry their clothing before they could finally make their way to Berk.

Jack’s arrival had caused quite a stir. The other dragon riders had initially been very skeptical; they still remembered what had happened the last time Hiccup had welcomed a stray to Berk. Things had nearly ended badly, and nobody was eager to see history repeated.

And so, the other riders held Jack at an arms’ length, until Hiccup had woken up one morning to find his entire house covered in snow. It had taken longer to dig himself out of the house than it did to figure out who had done it. On Berk, there was only one dragon whose breath was that icy. The twins had immediately thrown caution to the wind, and Tuffnut insisted on trying to take Jack under his wing to teach him the way of Loki.

Despite his initial frustration at the snow, he couldn’t help but smile.

“Morning Gobber,” Hiccup greeted, coming to rest his forearms on the windowsill of the armory.

“Nearly done,” Gobber said, nodding at his current project. “Can ye lend me a spare hand?”

Nodding, Hiccup left his breakfast on the sill and made his way into his former haunt, crouching next to Gobber and holding the Shivertooth saddle in place so that Gobber could finish setting in the last of the reinforcements on the interior lining of the saddle.

Jack would be glad to finally be able to ride Coldsnap, although part of Hiccup was disappointed that their riding double was finally drawing to an end. It was better this way, with Jack on his own dragon. They’d be able to cover more ground, fly longer distances. They’d stand a much better chance of Jack finding where he’d come from.

As though Gobber could hear his thoughts, the blonde blacksmith smirked. “I can keep it another day, if ye want.”

“What?” Hiccup shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, a flush creeping back into his cheeks. “No, that’s not – not necessary.”

“It’d give you a few more days riding double with your boyfriend-”

“Jack is _not_ my boyfriend.”

“If you say so.”

“Gobber, he’s not – Jack and I – we aren’t-”

“Right, right. ‘Not your boyfriend’. I gotcha.” Gobber winked and Hiccup rolled his eyes.

Jack _wasn’t_ his boyfriend. They’d been forced to cuddle that first night to avoid freezing to death – it had been a necessity for survival, not a choice. Not that either of them had mentioned their first night to anyone – they hadn’t even spoken about it with each other. And the fact that he hadn’t slept as well since that night could be explained in other ways – for one, that he’d been sleeping at his desk nearly every night, and had more or less forgotten what sleeping in a bed actually felt like.

It had nothing to do with the feel of his arms wrapped around Jack, his face resting in the crook of the white-haired boy’s neck. It had nothing to do with the soft feel of Jack’s freckled skin under his callused fingertips. It had nothing to do with the feel of his chest pressed against the drowned boy’s back, Jack’s heart beating in tandem with his own.

It had been a survival thing, that’s all.

Hoisting the repaired Shivertooth saddle up onto his shoulder, Hiccup grabbed his breakfast from the armoury windowsill and made his way back to the Haddock family’s ancestral home.

Coldsnap chirped from the roof as Hiccup and Toothless returned, pushing his back against the door and using his weight to open it, since his hands were already occupied, and finding himself backing into something warm and soft and very distinctly _human_.

“Morning,” Jack said with his signature smirk, and Hiccup found himself blushing scarlet once more.

Setting their breakfast on the table, he hefted the Shivertooth saddle off of his shoulder and set it on the floor. And cursing inwardly at how charming the mischievous boy was, he met Jack’s light blue eyes and sighed.

“Hey Jack? Can we – ah – talk? There’s something I need to tell you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Concrit welcome. :)


End file.
